Malta-Cyprus-2019, how it started.

When I went to attend the annual OPEN Forum on May 12, 2018, I had no idea my little time and money investment would give me a huge return of a free airline ticket.  Turkish Airlines was one of the sponsors of the conference and they gave away two free tickets.  I was one of the two lucky people whose name was drawn.  The free ticket was SFO to Pakistan and back, to travel outside the busy season.  For a long time, after coming back from the conference, I could not find the official Turkish Airlines letter given to me at the conference.  I found the document in my jacket pocket when I gave the jacket for dry cleaning.  At the San Francisco Turkish Airlines office I communicated with Sayeh Afrasyabi.  Because of my bad vision I read the first name as Syah.  I thought Syah should have been the last name--as Mr. Black normally is; but then I thought Turks might have it a different way.  In short, I assigned a masculine gender to Sayeh Afrasyabi and kept addressing her as Mr. Afrasyabi.  I made the correction much later, only when I googled 'Sayeh Afrasyabi' and found out my mistake.  It was Sayeh (a shadow) and not Syah.  I apologized to her and Sayeh was kind to forgive me.
Turkish Airlines hub Istanbul has an enviable location.  When you get tired of Istanbul--and it is very hard to do so--you can explore exotic places all around it.  In my previous visits to that most western middle-eastern country, I have explored Istanbul a bit and have been to a few other places in Turkey.  So this time I wanted to do something new.  I asked Turkish Airlines for a break journey in Istanbul, for ten days.  Turkish Airlines was very gracious to let me do that, on the free ticket.
What to do in the 10 days I had?  Why not visit Cyprus and Malta?